IT‘S a dog more commonly associated with Hollywood stars like Paris Hilton.

But solicitor Veronica Hyland splashed out £6,000 on a pedigree Chihuahua – after stealing almost £100,000 from elderly clients.

The corrupt lawyer, 50, is now facing jail after pocketing the money which also paid for a boob reduction job, a £37,000 Audi, private schooling for her kids and a hoard of designer jewellery.

Heartless Hyland stole more than £90,000 from pensioner Doris Carrier just days after the death of her millionaire husband Les – former chairman of Wednesbury steel firm FH Lloyds.

The lawyer had doctored a legal document which allowed her to plunder the widow’s bank accounts.

Last night, a Staffordshire Police source said: “Hyland is despicable and vile. She preyed on elderly and vulnerable clients who trusted her implicitly.

‘‘She then frittered their money on egotistical luxury items, such as a breast reduction operation and a designer dog which cost £6,000.

“Her former clients are shocked and devastated.”

Hyland, of Priory Road in Stone, Staffordshire, admitted 16 counts of theft and fraud by false representation on October 12 at Stafford Crown Court.

She will be sentenced on Friday and can expect a lengthy prison sentence for the breach of trust.

Hyland was working as a wills and probate specialist at Wolverhampton solicitors Dunham Brindley and Linn when she began preying on her elderly clients in 2007.

She had access to dozens of pensioners who paid her varying sums to draw up wills and help them manage their financial affairs.

But on five separate occasions she paid clients’ cheques totalling £600 into her own bank account instead of her firm’s.

The police source said: “She would tell the client, ‘Oh, leave the cheque blank. I’ve got a stamp (bearing the firm’s name) back at the office’.

‘‘She then wrote her own name on the cheques and paid them into her account.”

Thieving Hyland also stole £470 of clients’ cash from her employer’s office in November 2007.

Her job then brought her into contact with Doris Carrier, who now lives at a Wolverhampton nursing home.

The scheming solicitor stole the frail pensioner’s savings after doctoring an Enduring Power of Attorney document which gave her power over her bank accounts.

Over a four month period from April to August last year, Hyland illegally transferred £93,236 from Mrs Carrier’s bank accounts into her own.

A source close to the case said: “Mrs Carrier was devastated by what happened, extremely distressed.

‘‘It’s fair to say that had she not had the support of some extremely kind friends, we dread to think what might have happened.

“She is a very elderly lady and she, like others for whom Hyland carried out legal work, came to trust her completely.

‘‘They have all been left very shocked by her disgusting abuse of trust.

“She is a horrible woman who has not shown any remorse for what she did.

‘‘All of the clients who had money taken were left very shocked. The cheques they had written and given her were meant for the solicitors, Dunham Brindley and Linn.

“But Hyland asked the clients to leave the cheques blank so that she could write her own name in and pay them into her bank account instead.

‘‘She was taking the clients’ money but because she had carried out work for them, it was Hyland’s firm that lost out financially - execpt for in the case of Mrs Carrier.”

A police investigation into Hyland’s spending found she blew some of the stolen cash on private school fees for her own children.

She also frittered £3,000 of it on a breast reduction operation and lavished a whopping £6,000 the designer Chihuahua ‘handbag’ dog.

The crooked solicitor, who worked under her maiden name Veronica Wilkinson, also paid £37,000 in cash for a gleaming Audi Avant A3 and treated herself to a selection of designer jewellery.

She was arrested by Staffordshire Police and charged in June at Rugeley police station with 16 counts of theft and fraud by false representation.

After losing her job, Hyland is now understood to be claiming disability living allowance and is using a wheelchair. Her husband has attended all of her court hearings with her and is said to be fully supportive of her.

When approached by a Sunday Mercury reporter at her home on Friday, Hyland angrily refused to comment.

Her husband stormed: “Do you get your kicks from lying to disabled women? If you show your face at my house again I’ll break your ******* neck.”

The couple’s pet dog, believed to be the £6,000 pedigree pooch, had been yapping around our reporter’s ankles during the confrontation.

Hyland, who is thought to have lived for a time in Codsall Road, Wolverhampton, is expected to be hauled before a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal at the end of the criminal case.

It has the power to ban her from legal practice for life.

A spokesman for the Solicitors Regulatory Authority said of Hyland: “She will inevitably face disciplinary proceedings.”

Hyland is thought to have worked for Dunham Brindley and Linn for several years. The firm no longer exists but was bought earlier this year by another company, which declined to comment.

A spokeswoman for Staffordshire Police confirmed that Hyland is due to be sentenced at Stafford Crown Court on Friday.